Northwestern's flagship student-run EMT-B program. Two quarters. One certification. A direct line into emergency medicine — for a fraction of what private programs charge.
NEMO's annual EMT-Basic course is the largest student-run pre-clinical training program at Northwestern. We partner with MedEx Ambulance Service — a state-licensed EMS provider — to deliver the same Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) approved curriculum that anchors paid commercial programs across the Chicago area.
The course runs across Winter and Spring quarters. Lectures, hands-on skills sessions, simulation labs, and clinical rotations are scheduled around academic loads. By the time students sit for the National Registry of Emergency Medical Technicians (NREMT) cognitive and psychomotor exams in late spring, they've logged the lecture hours, clinical hours, and competency check-offs required for state and national licensure.
NEMO takes zero profit. Tuition flows directly from students to MedEx for instruction and materials. Outside funding covers infrastructure — manikins, AED trainers, in-house instructor certification — that keeps the price floor as low as we can push it.
For pre-meds, this is the cheapest route into clinical exposure that actually counts on an application. For students from EMS backgrounds, it's the certification you bring home. For everyone else, it's the most useful elective you'll ever take.
Tuesday lectures on Zoom, Sunday skills sessions in person, optional Wednesday office hours. Each block builds on the last — foundations to assessment to medical to trauma to operations, with three written exams and a psychomotor final spaced across the term.
Intro to EMS, well-being, lifting and moving, medical terminology, anatomy, pathophysiology, and the medical-legal frame.
Scene size-up, primary survey, vital signs, history-taking, communication and documentation.
Airway management, oxygen delivery, BVM and adjuncts, respiratory emergencies, CPAP and nebulizer use.
Diabetic emergencies and altered mental status, allergic reactions and anaphylaxis, infectious disease and sepsis.
Hematologic and renal emergencies, hemorrhage control, soft-tissue trauma, Stop The Bleed.
Cardiac emergencies, resuscitation, secondary assessment and reassessment, general pharmacology.
Poisoning and overdose (including IN Narcan), abdominal emergencies, behavioral and psychiatric calls, de-escalation.
Chest and abdominal trauma, musculoskeletal injuries, head and spine, splinting, c-spine immobilization, extrication.
Multisystem trauma, environmental emergencies, OB/GYN and delivery, pediatric and geriatric considerations.
Patients with special challenges, hazmat and MCIs, JUMP/START triage in a mass casualty drill.
Highway safety, vehicle operations, EMS response to terrorism, system-level decision-making.
Final written exam, skills exam, three nights of psychomotor testing. NREMT sign-up and licensing.
Private EMT programs in the Chicago area run between $1,800 and $2,400. We teach the same IDPH-approved curriculum, with the same NREMT exam at the end, for less than a third of that — because NEMO takes no margin and outside funding offsets infrastructure costs.
Applications open in fall quarter. Capacity is 120 seats. We hold an info session in the first two weeks of fall — bring questions, bring snacks.